In Kate Locke’s God Save the Queen, the Plague has infected the Aristocracy with something called the Prometheus Protein, which led to vampirism in England and lycanthropy in Scotland. Queen Victoria, a vampire, is about to celebrate 175 years on the throne. British society is now a strange blend of Victorian and modern, and the social ranks are comprised of the infected Aristocracy, Halvies (the half-blood offspring of the Aristocracy), and humans. They all coexist, but animosity between humans and the infected is high.

Xandra Vardan, a member of the Royal Guard, is a halvie; her mother was a human courtesan, and her father is an Aristo vampire. Shortly after Xandra’s half-sister Dede disappeared, her family was told that Dede committed suicide, but Xandra has good reason to believe that the corpse provided for her family to identify is not her sister. Xandra’s search for Dede leads her to the goblins’ underground kingdom and to Bedlam where she learns about dark secrets that someone would kill to keep hidden. She soon realizes that everyone she trusts may be part of a conspiracy, and her blood could be key to it all. With the help of Vex MacLaughlin, the sexy Alpha of the UK wolves, and an unlikely cast of outsiders, Xandra must navigate the secrets and lies that could bring down the British Empire.

Locke’s unique blend of alternate history, urban fantasy, romance, and steampunk will appeal to readers who enjoyed Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series. Xandra is a tough, smart heroine, and the story reads like the script of an action movie. The Queen is Dead, the next book in Locke’s Immortal Empire series, will be published in February 2013.

Unrelated secrets simultaneously surface, threatening to destroy a family, a neighborhood and a country in Susan Richards Shreve’s latest novel, You Are the Love of My Life. A community on the outskirts of Washington, DC is the perfect backdrop for this story set in 1973, just as Watergate is ready to engulf the capital and the nation. In this seemingly tranquil neighborhood, Lucy Painter grew up in a family drowning in secrecy. Her father, an advisor to Harry Truman, committed suicide due to “the information he kept”. Her mother changed their last name and moved them across the country for a fresh start, but these actions only served to catapult Lucy towards an adult life equally full of secrecy and lies. When Lucy moves with her two children back to her childhood home, she hopes for a life of anonymity. But intrusive neighbors, especially fellow mother Zelda who has been hiding a dysfunctional marriage, threaten the protective shell she’s built around her life. When Lucy’s daughter Maggie becomes entranced with Zelda and further isolates herself, Lucy realizes she must lay bare her past in order to move forward in her own life and rescue her daughter.

Shreve does an excellent job creating nuanced characters who don’t reveal all their cards. In addition to Lucy and Zelda there is August, a former professor who’s widowed and struggling with professional shortcomings, Lane, who is coping with the then-shame of breast cancer treatment, and Adam, Zelda’s husband and Vietnam veteran who is silently suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Shreve’s novel highlights a time in American history when normalcy and conformity battled with larger social issues and political blunders too big to ignore, a time when underlying tensions came to a roiling boil.

What do frying pans, spit-jacks, and molecular gastronomy have in common? They are all kitchen technologies that have affected how humans accomplish the very basic task of feeding themselves. Some are ancient, like the wooden spoon, which has been around for thousands of years. Some are complex, like the SousVide SVK-00001 Supreme Water Oven, which can hold a vacuum-sealed package of chicken breast at a constant temperature of 137 degrees Fahrenheit until the meat becomes succulent, juicy, and somehow safe enough to eat. And some, like the basic cooking pot, are more influential than others. They all have a place in Bee Wilson’s insightful and entertaining new history, Consider the Fork: A history of how we cook and eat.

In a work that spans time from before the development of agriculture through today’s high-tech kitchen gadgetry, it is impossible to be comprehensive. Wilson, instead, focuses on certain culinary implements that have had an impact on what we eat and how we go about preparing to eat it. Each chapter explores a different kitchen tool or concept, with charming hand-drawn illustrations of the various equipment sprinkled throughout the text. Wilson also includes short spotlights on particularly useful, unique, and interesting examples of kitchen technology that punctuate the end of the every chapter.

Witty and filled with wonderful obscure facts about famous and long-forgotten kitchen equipment, Consider the Fork is perfect for anyone who has ever looked in their kitchen drawers and wondered, “Where did all this stuff come from?” Food history enthusiasts and fans of Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: A world history will devour this delightful read.

As Susannah Cahalan waited in the doctor’s office the painting of Miro’s Carota, with its twisted, unnatural grin, seemed to smile down at her. She would revisit the colorful and distorted face over the next several months as she battled a mysterious neurological illness that almost permanently severed her connection with reality. In her candid and gripping new memoir, Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, the New York Post reporter reconstructs in a riveting fashion the journey that carried her to the brink of lunacy.

For twenty-four-year-old Cahalan the illness crept up innocently enough. She believed her flu symptoms were the result of bedbugs in her Manhattan apartment. Once she began experiencing numbness she sought out a doctor. Soon she was missing deadlines at work, and her increasingly erratic behavior now included paranoia and hallucinations. Cahalan and her family worried she was having a nervous breakdown. It was her first blackout at her boyfriend Stephen’s house that “marked the line between sanity and insanity,” she recalled. Doctors were baffled, and on March 23, 2009 she was admitted to the hospital. Eventually, a prominent neurologist's hunch followed by a brain biopsy confirmed that she suffered from rare autoimmune encephalitis. Recovery would take months. Her zombie-like behavior scared people who wondered what was wrong with her. She described running into an old high school friend as a "soul crushing moment." Her rock remained her family, Stephen and her parents, who never wavered.

Cahalan admits writing her story was difficult. With only flashes of memory intact she relied on interviews, medical records, journals, and hospital video footage to complete the picture. Absorbing and fast paced, the book’s short chapters read like a medical mystery that takes an eye-opening look inside the misfiring of the human mind and its ability to repair and emerge from the abyss.

Bird & Squirrel on the Run! is the funny new graphic novel from James Burks. Squirrel accidentally loses his winter supply of nuts while trying to rescue Bird from the Cat. Limited by an injured wing, Bird talks Squirrel into walking south with him to survive the winter. Thus begins a wonderful buddy adventure for the younger reader. While Bird is fun-loving and adventurous, Squirrel is very cautious and nervous. As Bird learns a little bit about responsibility and Squirrel learns a little bit about fun, the two new friends contend with angry bees, scary snakes, waterfalls, dire predictions (from a fortune-telling mole!) and one determined cat on their way to warmer lands. Displaying loyalty and fortitude, the pair faces down one last fearsome, flying foe. Will the friends survive their journey?

Burks’ bright colorful illustrations are easy to follow. Using such details as an acorn helmet for the cautious Squirrel and aviator goggles for the adventurous Bird, Burks’ artwork complements the story well. His lesson of a happy medium between being overly-cautious and carelessly adventurous is subtly conveyed. While the text is simple and very manageable, the story is delightfully detailed. This book could serve as a wonderful transition to chapter books for the newly independent reader… and it’s a fun read!

Prolific children’s author Bruce Coville is back with a fresh serving of the deliciously weird. Welcome to Always October, where the weather is always autumnal and monsters abound. It is a world separate from our own, yet woven into the essential fabric of human dreams and fears. Now the links between these worlds are in danger of unraveling, and the fate of each hangs by a thread.

Sixth grader Jake Doolittle isn’t fond of surprises. In the second grade, his best friend Lily nearly mucked up their friendship by proposing to him in front of the entire class (True story!) In the fourth grade, his adored dad disappeared under mysterious circumstances. So when Jake opens the door one stormy night to find a baby swaddled in black on the front porch, he’s more than a little uneasy. A note left with the baby urges the family to protect Little Dumpling until his guardian can return. Jake’s mother falls in love with the baby immediately, and it isn’t long before Jake himself falls for the smiles and gurgles of his new little brother. But when the light of a full moon hits Little Dumpling, it reveals a bright green furry little monster!

Little Dumpling may be a little monster at times, but he’s still Jake’s brother now and he’s determined to protect LD and get to the bottom of the baby’s transformation. Jake turns to Lily and together the two seek to solve the puzzle of Little Dumpling’s transformation, his unusual ancestry, and the curious link between the baby monster and Jake’s father. Alternating point-of-view narration, snappy dialogue, and quirky characters keep readers on their toes as they follow Jake, Lily and Little Dumpling on their adventure.

"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve," Neeve said. "Either you're his true love . . . or you killed him."

Thus begins The Raven Boys, the newest book by New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater. The Raven Boys are the students of Aglionby Academy, a prestigious private school in Henrietta, Virginia. They are easily identified by the raven-emblemed sweaters they wear, as well as the haughty air that drips off them like the millions they are being groomed to inherit. A quartet of boys, led by Gansey, has broken off from the pack in a quest to find an ancient king. Using unorthodox methods, they search for the “lay line” that will connect them to the dormant spirit of the sleeping Welsh King Glendower. Frustrated by a lack of success, they decide to try visiting a local psychic.

Blue Sargent also lives in Henrietta, the only non-seer in a family of mediums. All of her life she has wished for just a fraction of psychic ability, a chance to truly fit in to her strange but loving family. As she attends her aunt Neeve in the graveyard on St. Mark’s Eve, she is shocked when she sees the spirit of a boy moving toward the church. When she asks his name, he replies only “Gansey.” As Blue tries to understand the warning from her aunt predicting love or death, her and Gansey’s worlds collide when the boys arrive at her door.

While the correlating stories of Blue’s lack of ability and Gansey’s quest drive the action, the true delights in The Raven Boys lie in the familial relationships of the novel. The house full of women provides a creative yet chaotic environment for Blue, with a nurturing that borders on overprotectiveness. For Gansey, family is one of his creation, and the misfit group is a unique brotherhood of support without condition. Stiefvater has created a tale that is half coming-of-age story and half ghost story, equally spine-tingling and satisfying. Fans of her Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy will find much to enjoy here with more to come, as this is the first of a planned trilogy.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer, the second in Michelle Hodkin’s Mara Dyer trilogy picks up just one day after the first book ends. Mara has been committed to a psychiatric unit after her outburst in a police station, in which she announced that her dead ex-boyfriend was alive, and assumed responsibility for the deaths of her friends and others. This may sound outlandish, but in the world of Mara Dyer, it’s actually true.

The Mara Dyer books are a mix of high school drama, fantasy, paranormal romance, and mystery. Mara is not an average high schooler—she has paranormal abilities, which have caused her heaps of trouble. After realizing the extent of her powers in the first book, Mara has struggled with the knowledge that she has the ability to imagine people’s deaths and cause them to happen. In The Evolution, Mara has to act as though nothing is wrong in front of her family so that she can stay out of the psych unit. Meanwhile she and her boyfriend Noah, who also has powers (albeit different ones), investigate what happened to cause the deaths of her friends, and why they have paranormal powers. As they learn more, the mystery deepens, and they realize their connection goes much further back than high school.

Fans of the Pretty Little Liars series will enjoy the mystery and romance this series has to offer, while those looking for something a bit different will enjoy it as well. The second book in the trilogy is just as suspenseful as the first (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer). New mysteries appear along the way, and it includes an ending that leaves readers eagerly awaiting the final book of the trilogy, The Retribution of Mara Dyer.

Local author, former Sun food columnist, and founder of Baltimore Beer Week, Rob Kasper knows his food and drink. In Baltimore Beer, he traces the growth of the brewing industry beginning with the influence of the German immigrants who brought their craft with them from Europe. Loaded with anecdotes and moving from early biergartens to modern brewpubs, Kasper explores the breweries’ social and economic influence on the Baltimore area. “Ain’t the beer cold?”

Baltimore residents Barton and Elizabeth Cockey teamed up to produce a charming look at ye olde suburbia in their book Baltimore County. Divided into sections such as Transportation, Public Buildings and Schools, and Wars, this book takes the reader on a tour of county peoples and places and offers an informative narrative laced with personal recollections. Instead of photographs, the book is illustrated with artist Elizabeth’s paintings of the area.

2012 marked the 175th year anniversary of the Baltimore Sun. While no longer a “penny paper,” the power of its photographs to inform and inspire remains a constant. Days Remembered is a collection of images from the Sun spanning from the 1901 debut portrait photograph of Judge Sherry of the Maryland Court of Appeals to the Blue Angels flight over Fort McHenry this past summer. Grouped by decade and including pictures of Babe Ruth, marble step-scrubbing, Blaze Starr, the Berrigan brothers, and the integration of Southern High, this visual history perfectly captures the past one hundred-plus years of Maryland living.

One Shot, the ninth book in Lee Child’s bestselling Reacher series, has been adapted for the big screen in a new film called Jack Reacher. A sniper fires six shots into a crowd, leaving five people dead. The prime suspect, a former Gulf War sniper named James Barr, insists that he’s innocent and says, “Get Jack Reacher for me.” Reacher, a larger-than-life ex-military investigator, appears on the scene and concludes that Barr isn’t the shooter. Reacher teams up with a young lawyer to find the truth and uncover the puppet-master behind it all. With its pulse-pounding suspense, it is no surprise that One Shot was destined for the big screen. New fans and long-standing Reacher Creatures (a moniker for Child’s fans) will also want to check out Jack Reacher’s Rules, a new compendium of trivia, quotations, and advice. This definitive guide to all things Reacher is a fun treat for fans and a great way to get to know the world of Jack Reacher.

The filmmakers’ decision to cast Tom Cruise as the 6'5" Jack Reacher was widely criticized by fans of the series. In a recent interview, Child said, “It’s not just about the size. Reacher is also very smart. He’s very intimidating. He’s the coolest guy in the room, and Cruise can do that. On the screen, he nails it.” Can Tom Cruise fill Reacher’s shoes? Decide for yourself! The trailer is available now, and Jack Reacher will be in theaters on December 21.